Men Of War: Assault Squad

Share this:

1c and DigitalMindSoft have sent word that there is to be a new game in the Men of War series: Assault Squad. This is intended to be an expandalone focusing on the skirmish, co-op and multiplayer elements of the existing game. There will be new multiplayer maps, and 4-player online and LAN co-op. It’s also going to expand the feature set a bit for your little men, with hero units, “remote controlled bombs that can flatten entire residential blocks, airstrikes able to destroy incoming tank columns, special “For the Motherland!” charge attacks.” Even more interestingly: “the ability to buy individual soldiers to suit players’ needs the ability to buy individual soldiers to suit players’ needs.” Full press release below, and I’ll have even more details next week, along with some assets. Exciting!

(I spoke of my love for the original Men of War here, and also in a secondary bonus ode published by The Escapist, here.)

Title: Men of War: Assault Squad

Release date: Q3 2010

Developer: DMS/Best Way

Publisher: 1C Company

Platform: PC

Genre: RTT / Third-Person Action

MEN OF WAR: ASSAULT SQUAD IN DEVELOPMENT

MOSCOW, Russia – May 27, 2010 – Leading Eastern and Central European publisher, 1C Company, announced today the development of Men of War: Assault Squad, the sequel to the critically acclaimed real-time tactics game Men of War. This stand-alone expansion features a completely new cooperative skirmish game mode with access to five different nations (Russia, Germany, USA, Commonwealth and – for the first time ever in the Men of War series – Japan) as well as increased realism and accessibility. The expansion pack will deliver fans and newcomers an intense new WW2 spectacle with almost limitless replayability.

What makes the new skirmish game mode so unique?

· Different historical settings and battlegrounds for every nation will ensure that each time players will face a different variety of enemies and tactics.

· Unique hero units for every nation with powerful abilities such as increasing units’ firepower, boosting morale or providing other advantages to defeat the enemy against all odds.

· Fantastic bonus abilities such as remote controlled bombs that can flatten entire residential blocks, airstrikes able to destroy incoming tank columns, special “For the Motherland!” charge attacks and many more.

· Improved and dynamic AI ensures that no two games will play out the same way, making each battle a new experience against an AI that really fights back.

· Choose from a variety of scenario locations ranging from Western Europe, to Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Pacific.

· The ability to play this impressive game mode with up to four friends in LAN or cooperative online play.

New features:

· New multiplayer maps and game settings

· Improved multiplayer balancing to provide a more authentic use of equipment and vehicles

· A reworked artillery system that provides innovative assault and defense strategies

· New types of ammunition that increase the depth of tank combat

Men of War: Assault Squad takes place across the globe during the height of World War II and features five different armies each with their own unique units, vehicles and abilities. The game also features the unique “direct control” feature which enables players to maneuver units using the directional keys, rather than pointing and clicking. PC Generals can get behind the controls of a tank to smash through obstacles, crush soldiers under its tracks and fire armor-piercing shells at enemy emplacements, or take control of individual soldiers as they fight. More information about the game can be found at www.menowargame.com

29 Comments

Looks interesting, though I’m a little disappointed they didn’t take this opportunity to turn the Dynamic Campaign Mod into something official, it’d seem to fit the overall feel here. Contextless skirmishes are never going to be as entertaining for me as moving forward or falling back across a dynamic map.

Indeed, and I didn’t intend for that to read as negatively as it does. Like Mythrilfan, I see this as a step in the right direction, and the co-op focus has a lot of promise. That said, if he’s right and this serves as a quality toolset for a new DCM version, that alone would be motivation enough for me to buy it.

Bloody *finally.* Vinraith is right but this is at least a good first step. Fortunately it will also allow the DCM people to make their offering even better because the current one is too broken, due to the nonexistent AI.

Sweet, I too would’ve liked a dynamic skirmish, but it seems they are easing up the micromanagement a bit which is much welcome. If the “balancing” also means I can play a multiplayer game again without some bore getting the virtually indestructible concept super tanks I might return.

Loved the first one. Except for the fiddly missions where you had to guide four little men across a map, which basically devolved into trial and error. I never got past the first mission of the American campaign, despite about nine attempts over several weeks. I wish C&C had never introduced this sort of ‘infiltration mission’. It’s fine as a genre in its own right but I am old and slow and want to drive tank columns into beautifully rendered little towns, not sneak around hoping not to get shot. All that rambled, I will definitely be buying this new incarnation.

I’m sure Commandos originated the genre (which is a fine genre, just not for me). What I meant was, one or other of the C&C games (I think) was the first to mix in Commandos-style missions with RTS missions in a campaign, which led inexorably to the hero units in Warcraft 3. Which ruined gaming. More seriously, I just want tanks that I can blow up, not biographically-rich units that I’m supposed to care about, and Commandos games and RTS games in different boxes. :)

You know, I’ve always felt that Men of War was notably lacking in cephalopod representation – especially after Red Tide introduced naval combat! I’m glad to see that the developers have finally decided to remedy this problem.

Also, the co-op was tremendous fun in the original, so I’m looking forward to this. (Even if it doesn’t actually involve squids.) ((Alas.))

To the developers defence, the Red Tide expansion was developed by Best Way (the publisher who’s got an inhouse developer). Red Tide, IMO, felt like a money milking scheme. This upcoming expansion/standalone is developed by the original developer, DMS and being published by Best Way. It will stay TRUE to the original. I’m super excited.

I felt like a lot of Men of War had become too unwieldy compared to the earlier games in the series. I reckon it plays better when you just have up to about a dozen guys and maybe a couple of vehicles.

They should do an LRDG / Birth of the SAS campaign, or go to a different era. Sharpe of War, for instance.

I think Men of War got a pretty good balance of the types of missions myself, it had the smaller scale missions that were prominent in Soldiers as well as some larger and more spectacular battles like Faces of War had, but without as much linearity as that game.

Though I have to agree it’s the missions that let you make full use of the unique inventories and direct-control mode that shine brightest.

The level of realism in MoW was something I’d never seen before in an RTS. Hitboxes, trajectories, realistic damage models for vehicles, all that good stuff. I’m not saying this will disappear, it’ll probably be improved if anything, but having “hero units” that magically increases the damage of your squads? Morale is fine. Men fight better with good morale, this is no secret. But a gun is not going to do more damage if someone stands next to you while you’re shooting it.

If someone takes out a squad of my soldiers because of a clever grenade, or just clever play in general on their side, then that’s fair enough. But if someone did it because they clicked a button that makes their soldiers better than mine, I am going to be angry.

I agree. A lot of the appeal of Men of War (particularly in multiplayer) is that it just sets up a gigantic war sandbox and says “go kill each other”. How you do it is up to you but always within the plausible, brutal, unforgiving rules of this sandbox. There’s very little abstraction.

Hero units are an unwelcome abstraction. But we’ll see how it turns out.